Benefits of Extra-Curricular Activities in CBSE Schools
BY ADMIN PUBLISHED February 12, 2024, UPDATED February 14, 2024
Extracurricular activities are a vital part of a varied and well-rounded education. Offering activities other than just academics on a regular basis has a positive effect on a child’s overall learning and development. Research reveals that there are several benefits of extracurricular activities for children as they offer a variety of different ways to learn along with exploring opportunities for play and creativity.
At Delhi Public School Ghaziabad, children are open to taking up numerous extracurricular activities for students that might also play an essential role in their college application. These activities showcase a child’s interests, talents, and skills that go beyond their usual academic route. This illustrative guide allows you to understand how these activities can polish your child’s personal, professional, and interpersonal skills and how extracurricular activities can keep them engaged in the classroom.
How do Extracurricular Activities Benefit a Child?
Even though extracurricular activities often take up a lot of time outside school hours, it offers several opportunities for children to gain important life skills. These skills might dictate their future career path and influence their confidence and future success. Engaging in these activities can be beneficial as they are directly proportionate to a child’s growth and development.
Schools with extracurricular activities as a part of their curriculum demonstrate that they understand the importance of valuing their student's time and effort outside the classroom.
Here is how extracurriculars can be beneficial for a child.
- Expands a child’s social circle
- Helps in developing their communication, social, and emotional skills
- Allows children to learn about themselves and their interests
- Builds their passions and interests
- Boosts their skills in their area of interest
- Enables them to develop important life skills for the future
- Helps in building teamwork skills
- Improves their leadership skills, develops compassion and empathy
- Nurtures creativity, keeps them motivated
- Guides learners to become more self-sufficient
- Allows students to achieve strong work ethics
- Fosters high self-esteem and improves academic performance
- Significantly enhances mental health and wellbeing
- Reduces the risk of depression and anxiety in children
- Acts as a medium to build a CV and facilitate college and career prospects
Despite all these, it is essential to consider the possibility of not overburdening a child with too many extracurricular activities. Overscheduling too many commitments might have a negative effect on the child as it would mean they would have limited free time, which might curb their development. This might also lead to increased stress and anxiety. Therefore, getting the right balance based on the individual needs of a child is vital when it comes to selecting extracurricular activities.
Top Co-Curricular Activities For a Holistic Development
Educational institutions offer various extracurricular activities from which a child can choose depending on their passion and interest. Selecting the right kind of co-curricular is essential as it might shape their future lives.
Children should engage in at least two or more co-curricular activities to explore their talents and utilize their energy. Here is a comprehensive list of the different types of co-curricular activities offered in schools:
Academic Extracurricular Activities
These activities include book clubs, school magazine editing, story writing, poetry recitation, etc. Debates, organizing exhibitions, preparing and event banners also fall under this umbrella.
Leisure Co-Curricular Activities
This includes coin collection, model making, stamp collection, rain enthusiast, etc. You might also find students signing up for museum exploration, monument excursions, gardening, and more.
Social Development Extracurricular Activities
Such activities include guiding, scouting, and school council activities.
Physical Extracurricular Activities
Activities like indoor and outdoor games, mass drills, PT, and NCC are all covered under this category.
Cultural Development
You might find options like music, dance, folk dance and songs and fancy dress competitions.
Picnics And Excursions
Activities like special visits, hiking, trekking and visiting historical and places of geographical importance for a day or two.
Some schools might also offer activities like doll making, cooking, photography, album making, flower decoration, basket making, collage making, knitting etc that might teach valuable life skills to children.
5 Benefits of Extracurricular Activities
Now that you have understood the various types of extracurricular activities, here are a few pros of extracurricular activities that allow students to have real insights for their future decision-making:
1. Enhanced Academic Performance
There has been multiple research conducted on the relationship between academic performance and extracurricular activities. Studies show that students who take up co-curricular activities have improved academic success. From promoting time management and organizational skills to better attendance, participation in extracurricular activities offers a more positive school life with better achievement.
2. Create Broader Perspectives
Doing co-curricular can lead to valuable insight and introspection. These insights can amplify a child’s sense of accomplishment and vision in ways that were never thought possible at first. These activities also allow for forming deeper passions and staying motivated to achieve such goals. Such introspection also opens doors to an inner voice that sparks a more creative and bigger set of future-oriented aspirations that might find way through college applications and life journeys.
3. Higher Self-Esteem
A child’s confidence will rise when you excel at the things you enjoy doing. They can succeed without feeling pressured by grades and by putting in a lot of effort and learning new abilities in an enjoyable, laid-back, and occasionally competitive environment. Additionally, children will be more willing to take chances and risks in life as self-esteem grows. With higher self-esteem, there will also be reduced levels of anxiety and despair, as well as increased life satisfaction and optimism.
4. Boosted Social Opportunities
It’s a no-brainer that making friends might be challenging at times. Therefore, when students engage in activities that foster closer friendships and improved interpersonal skills, it helps a child's social network grow. They can also explore cross-cultural communication and learn about cultural diversity by stepping outside of their comfort zones.
5. Improved Mental Well-Being
As far as mental health is concerned, participating in extracurricular activities can elevate mood and lessen stress. Children who participate in these activities will also spend less time in front of screens and experience less anxiety and depression. They also entail physical exercises, which are very beneficial to mental and physical health.
Also Read: Importance of Extracurricular Activities for Students
Conclusion
It is advised that you identify the aspects that most connect with your child while weighing the advantages of extracurricular activities so that you can make an informed choice. Furthermore, you can also consider the options offered by DPSG Sushant Lok and learn about the clubs and opportunities while finding your passions and interests. We have great options ranging from making more friends to building life skills and developing skills that create a killer resume. You can look at what our school has to offer if you wish to support your child's academic and personal development.
